Canada to launch new measures to entice skilled migrants

The Canadian government is launching a new strategy to attract more talent and foreign exchange into the country.

Rolled out on 1 November by Bill Morneau, Finance Minister, it includes schemes enabling technology companies and other transnational corporations in Canada to import skilled migrant workers for jobs, which are not finding any eligible takers in Canada.

The federal government said that it would set up a two-week ‘standard’ to approve visas and work permits in early 2017 and put in place a work permit of 30-days-a-year to allow companies to bring in foreign workers for brief periods.

The Globe and Mail quotes Morneau as telling the reporters that businesses were complaining that their biggest obstacle to success was talent.

This notification is said to have been cheered by many people belonging to this North American country’s IT sector, which has seen the emergence of firms worth C$1 billion or more. They include majors such as Hootsuite Media, Shopify and Kik Interactive.

Alexandra Clark, director of policy and government affairs, Shopify, feels that this move would rev up the sector. He added that it would enable Canadian companies to easily compete in the global arena. IT companies in Canada are said to have been struggling to hire more foreign workers.

The Information and Communications Technology Council, Canada has estimated that their country would face a paucity of more than 200,000 workers in the ICT segment by the year 2020.

Allen Lau, CEO of Wattpad, a Canadian online publishing forum, said that this would put Canada on a firmer footing to recruit overseas talent. He added that getting skilled talent of that kind wouldn’t rob Canadians of jobs. It is unlike bringing in low-skilled workers from other countries, Lau added.

To be considered suitable for fast-tracking of visas, companies in Canada need to show that they require the niche foreign talent for investing, transferring knowledge or to scale up recruitment in the country, according to the government. International companies can also make use of this system provided they are investing large sums of money in Canada. This strategy would be unveiled in spring of 2017, it was stated.

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